TO DO:
- I have not shared this process with all of you yet, and am not convinced I was very clear if I have. When you have a position you would like to post with HR, these are the steps to take prior to that happening: 1) You complete and I approve your 2017-18 staffing plan; 2) You communicate with me which job(s) you are wanting to post; 3) I send you, Jon, and Debbie, an email requesting this position(s) to be posted. The main reason for this process is to ensure we have placed all contract employees (especially those returning from LOA), and that we post them correctly (e.g. if you have a teacher going out on LOA then her/his job must be posted as “temporary” to ensure they have a spot to return to). Again, only “hard to fill” jobs will be posted at this time. Let me know if you have any questions about this process.
THIS AND THAT:
- Next Friday morning from 7:15 – 10:00, PCMS is hosting a”Career Speaker Series” (TEDx style) event for their 8th grade students. There are 16 scheduled speakers who will give four, 25 minute presentations. Students will choose from the following five career clusters and hear four different presentations.
- Arts & Humanities
- Human Services
- Government, Law, & Public Safety
- Business Management & Administration
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
The goals of this event are to provide students the ability to explore various career choices and pathways, help students to understand that many career pathways are not linear, and help students to consider how 21st Century skills (communication, collaboration, creativity, empathy, etc.) are used in various career paths. If you’d like to know more or consider having someone from your building attend, contact Chris or Lisa.
- Here is a short (just over 4:00) MLTS Sparks video on creativity (and Stanford d.School) that I believe would be worth your time to watch. A few of the questions that struck me, connected with this video, are: Where in your school are students most creative? Do students have an opportunity to build on each other’s ideas? If a student approaches a problem in a way that was not taught, is he/she punished or rewarded? In what ways is creativity honored in your school? (http://sparks.mltsfilm.org/)
- A few of you have asked me about the impeding PE time requirement changes that are supposed to be implemented this next school year (requiring our MS kids have 225 minutes per week of PE). Here is an article that came out this week through OSBA that talks about SB 4, which effectively extends the deadline of when this time requirement would need to be in place. This is definitely good news for most of you – if it passes. I’ll keep you posted when I learn more.
REMINDERS:
- A reminder that we will not be having a Horizontal meeting this month. Our meeting was originally scheduled for this coming Monday, but you should instead plan on meeting with your MS PD team instead (I reminded you of these groups in the 3.17.17 TRIBE update). Use this time together to share things that are working in your building, obstacles overcome, current struggles, ask for advice or input on something you are working through, or spend time talking about your top three accomplishments thus far in the year.
- Don’t forget what you can and can’t do in terms of campaigning as a district employee. If you need a reminder – or need to remind those you work with – here is a school district Administrative Regulation and public employee restriction document from the state.